1984 (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (628)
See it if you can stomach looking into a mirror held up to the horrors we live amidst - those we participate in and those we chose to be ignorant of.
Don't see it if you can't handle realistic violence and (loud) sensory manipulation. In Grand Guignol fashion, 1984 makes Martin McDonagh's work seem tame.
See it if you are familiar with & understand the source material (book, film) because this is a condensation and may be confusing; are not squeamish
Don't see it if you don't know Orwell at all; want an easy, breezy, entertainment at the theater; you are faint-hearted; can't abide graphic torture scenes Read more
See it if you are literary minded and can actually stay off your electronics for more than five minutes.
Don't see it if you can't handle LOTS of blood, flashing lights and much violence.
See it if you like riveting, fascinating, edge-of-your-seat theater. It is a brilliant adaptation and the direction, design, and actors are all great.
Don't see it if you like fluffy, light plays. This is challenging, in all the right ways.
See it if you want to see a confrontational piece of theatre
Don't see it if you enjoy escapist entertainment and are not willing to endure long periods of intense visual and audible horror or have guns pointed at you Read more
See it if You love the source material, or want a hardcore dramatic show.
Don't see it if You have a hard time with R rated material (blood and gore)
See it if You like intense plays that are thought provoking.
Don't see it if You have a weak stomach or want to see a light hearted show. There is a graphic torture scene.
See it if You want the pants scared off of you . Subject matter is frightening to watch at times, can become a reality in the not so distant future
Don't see it if You want something light and fluffy, this is not your cup of tea. Left me shaking afterwards which never happens at a play
Critic Reviews (54)
“The effort to freak out the audience is taken to such extremes in the grim production that this ‘1984’ manages nothing so successfully as upstaging Orwell…If you were looking to this Broadway treatment to illuminate further the unsettling absurdity of government running roughshod over common sense, you will be disappointed. Because the reductive inclinations of the adapter-directors here are more in the gothic horror vein than in the service of disruptive political narrative.”
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“‘1984’ doesn’t have the same foreboding effect audiences might expect from a book that’s continually felt eerily prescient for decades. Still, the acting is phenomenal and the wildly innovative production makes for a memorable show…A play doesn’t allow for quite the amount of world-building that can be accomplished in a book, so the full extent of Big Brother’s rule isn’t quite as rich as it is in Orwell’s original work. But the creative team has found new ways to bring the story to life.”
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“A streamlined, multimedia-enhanced, unapologetically intense production…Olivia Wilde, making an assured Broadway debut…Orwell’s narrative is followed, but the stage version has a nonlinear and unpredictable flow…This visceral and unpredictable staging is more exciting and effective than this summer’s other politically-oriented productions.”
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"A harrowing stage adaptation...This is not an easy play for us to watch. Icke and Macmillan, who also co-directed, employ disorienting effects: light and sound disruptions mess with our heads, the story seems to jump back and forth in non-linear fashion, and the torture sequence at the end is brutally graphic...There is a very unsettling quality to the performances, and deliberately so...In 2017, '1984' resonates louder than ever."
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“While it occasionally feels more like a film than a play and suffers from some strange narrative choices, it still captures the essence of Orwell's message in thrillingly theatrical ways...Icke and MacMillan unveil the exposition in short, often confusing scenes. The inclusion of a book club as a framing device adds to our disorientation. Entire sections are presented via video projected on the set...Despite all of these questionable choices, the resulting play is undeniably riveting."
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"This production is like an ice pick aimed at one's nervous system...The authors ingeniously use lighting, sound, and video effects to create the world as seen through the eyes of Winston Smith...Sturridge is a fine Winston...The casting coup of the production is Reed Birney, as O'Brien...It's our bad luck that this production suddenly seems so relevant, but there's an element of good fortune in the skill–and ferocious moral authority–with which it is delivered."
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“A few elements of this adaptation and production seem ill considered…If resetting the story in an ill-defined, non-specific place was done with a view towards making the tale more universal, it actually has the opposite effect in undercutting one of the novel's greatest strengths…But ultimately the day is won by the power of Orwell's words and the high quality of the acting—and, of course, by the story's eerie relevance to current events...An extraordinary production.”
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"Familiarity tends to work against this honorable but undeniably glum and mostly suspense-less production...The production, while hardly literal-minded...nevertheless feels like a homework assignment from a civics class, replete with a virtual list of study suggestions...In a grim irony, this all makes for the kind of evening that doesn’t so much stimulate thought as shut it down, since the meanings have been so carefully parsed and served up for us."
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